Am I using disclose correctly in this sentence; "I think that the supporting poll would be fine and ethical to use, as long as you disclose the statistics on the more reliable poll." ?

Question

owlfred · Answer

Yep, you are! The second part of the sentence seems a little awkward, perhaps because this out of context. Is the supporting poll the more reliable poll?

anonymous · Answer

No, the supporting poll was done by a partisan group, and the opposing poll was done by a reputable bi-partisan polling organization. It is an ethics question. I thought that the sentence was awkward myself, I think that it is because I am technically using disclose correctly, but it is not the traditional usage.

owlfred · Answer

I think context probably helps some too...that's missing here currently. Which one is the more reliable poll?

anonymous · Answer

The more reliable poll was the other poll, not talked about in the sentence. The one mentioned is the supporting poll, which is less reliable.

anonymous · Answer

I think the slight change of "I think that the supporting poll would be fine and ethical to use, as long as you ALSO disclose the statistics on the more reliable poll." would improve the sentence.

anonymous · Answer

Late to the discussion, but the compound "fine and ethical to use" seems problematic to me.  First of all, "I think that the supporting poll would be fine to use" and "I think that the supporting poll would be ethical to use" are not parallel statements.  "Fine"  is very broad -- it could be fine for many reasons.  "Ethical" is far more specific.  Do you really mean, in this instance, that it's fine to use this poll *because* it's ethical to use the poll?  

Second of all, the construction "the poll is fine to use" is smooth and idiomatic, but the construction "the poll is ethical to use" is not.  That second phrase really ought to be "it's ethical to use this poll."  

Perhaps something like this, then? --

I think it's ethical to use the supporting poll, as long as you disclose the statistics of the more reliable poll as well.

(It is the statistics *of* the poll, not *on* the poll, right?)